Stone Mothers by Erin Kelly. (2019).
**2.5 out of 5 stars**
Marianne grew up in the shadow of an old asylum. She was 17 when she fled her hometown, her family, her boyfriend Jesse and the body they buried. Now, forced to return, the past is closing around her. And Jesse is threatening to expose the truth. Marianne will do anything to protect the life she’s built, her husband and her daughter…even if it means turning to her worst enemy. But Marianne doesn’t know the whole story and she’s not the only one with secrets they’d kill to keep…
When I read the back of this book I thought yep, thriller type story set in relation to a mental asylum, that’s my kind of novel. Unfortunately I was pretty disappointed. The narrative has the foundation and potential to be a great story but it just didn’t seem to work well in this case. The entire book is fairly slow but part one is especially slow (and at 97 pages that’s a bit rough). It did improve after that section but not enough to save the book in my opinion. The narrative is split into sections with each section being in different timelines but all related to the local mental health facility (aka the titular stone mother). I was interested enough to read to the end but as a whole I didn’t really enjoy this book and it’s not one I’d personally recommend.
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